T.G.I.F. Friday: Volume 8
Welcome to “Thank God I’m FI” Friday, Volume #8!
Here are some things I really like and that you might too.
Finance Articles
Waiting for Patience – “One of the biggest places I think investors screw-up is the impulse to take action. There’s this faulty belief that if we put on our hands on the steering wheel we’ll somehow do better than our previous investments.”
A Shift In Focus: Career Expansion to Career Stability – “For the first 15 years of my career I focused on constantly driving towards the boundaries of opportunity. I am still pushing forward with doing the best job I can do, but something has changed. A shift in focus is leading me towards a point where the career stability is the better choice. What has changed?”
Video
If you’ve never adventured in the outdoors of Utah, you don’t know what you’re missing. Camping in Canyonlands National Park was the first time I ever saw the Milky Way, and it was so bright and dense I thought it was a cloud. This short video using time-lapse techniques gives a taste of how amazing Utah is.
Remnants from Nate Atwater on Vimeo.
Who’s Inspired Me
Adventure photographer Cory Richards is an amazing and accomplished mountain athlete and a National Geographic photographer. He is the first American to summit an 8,000-meter peak in winter when he climbed Gasherbrum II in 2011. And he summitted Mt. Everest twice, once without oxygen.
What’s really impressive though is the way he’s taken on the severe depression that he’s suffered since childhood, and that took a huge toll on his life including alcoholism, bipolar disorder, and a divorce. While it’s not best for everyone to be so out there and open about such personal things, for Richards it’s been life saving.
I love what he says about dealing with depression, PTSD, and bipolar – “I want people to know that you can be a high functioning, high performance human, and still be dealing with these things, and in fact quite often dealing with them alongside everything else you are doing. It’s important to know that people who achieve these things don’t have everything figured out. That’s just a lie.”
Outside magazine did this great piece on Cory, and here’s another from National Geographic.
What I’m Grateful For
Our amazing National Parks, where some of my most cherished and visceral moments in life have happened. Please support them by buying an annual park pass.
Lyrically Speaking
Big money goes around the world
Big money underground
Big money got a mighty voice
Big money make no sound
Big money pull a million strings
Big money hold the prize
Big money weave a mighty web
Big money draw the flies
Sometimes pushing people around
Sometimes pulling out the rug
Sometimes pushing all the buttons
Sometimes pulling out the plug
From “Big Money”, by Rush, lyrics by Neil Peart
Most rock fans know Neil Peart as one of the greatest drummers in rock history, a virtuoso. When I was a kid we would hang out in the street with our boomboxes arguing over who was the best drummer, Peart, John Bonham, or Keith Moon. For a fucked up kid who escaped in music, it meant something. But what many don’t know is that Peart wrote the lyrics to almost all Rush songs. Some are amazing, and they were always introspective.
“Big Money” came out in 1985, in the height of synthesizer-mania and overproduction. But it was also a time when what was perceived as rampant greed and corruption was dominating the culture, and Peart’s lyrics reflected the times. I was fortunate to see Rush live in 1990 at the Baltimore Arena. It was amazing.
Neil Peart died last week after a three year fight with brain cancer. RIP Neil, you laid an amazing back beat to so many of my great childhood memories.
Miscellaneous
We May Not Have to Age So Fast – “Researchers in epigenetics are learning how to slow down—and even turn back—the clock that governs aging in our cells” This is exciting stuff.
This Is What Happens to Your Body on a Thru-Hike
Interstellar space even weirder than expected, NASA probe reveals
Thanks for the shout out. Happy Friday!
You’re welcome, it was a great post!
patience is the key to buy and hold investing success. it’s like a souffle’. don’t touch it or open the oven door. that’s a bummer about neil peart. if i walk out my door to my r+d building i can see canada and it’s a really big deal on canadian radio this week. most people didn’t know he wrote most of those lyrics.
i read that piece about the thru hike and am not to surprised. i’ve been doing my own experiment on myself with regard to the effects of wine on resting heart rate. i’ll write it up when i have more data but it goes pretty much like expected. if i go 4 days off the sauce my resting heart rate is around 44 at the end of that time. a couple of days back on the wine train and it’s back to the low-mid 50’s. after a hard weekend it’s over 60. it takes a lot to fight all that inflammation the booze is causing. we all suspect it but seeing it in real time is remarkable.
Wow, now that heart rate experiment is interesting, and I’m thinking I should try it myself. My resting is around 44 as well and I’m wondering how much it’s fluctuating, from alcohol or just stress in general.
it was hard to find a window of 4 wine-free days! i hope you try it and report back.
hilarious… i figured so much. I’d have to get a better heart monitor, but considering it
Nice list! I need more time to go through it all, but I liked the hiking article. It’s amazing what exercise can do for us. For me, the most shocking part was his A1c prior to the hike. He wasn’t even heavy, yet he was prediabetic. Wow. Thanks for some more weekend reading material!
Yeah that raised my eyebrows too about being prediabetic, kinda odd… but the benefits of the hike are irrefutable
Yes! I remember playing drums on the steering wheel of my first car. Rush was probably one of the first bands I popped into that pioneer cassette player. RIP Neil.
Man those were the days…